Kris Ramer always wanted her own business. After graduating from
college with a degree in small-business management, Ramer, now 27,
decided to put her schooling to use by forming a company with her
father to market one of his inventions.

Her father, Paul Ramer, 58, already owned Ramer Products, a
company that marketed ski-mountaineering equipment. His new
invention, Notwax, lubricated cross-country skis and snowboards
without using wax. The product worked well, but the only way to
sell it was to get users to actually try it, and Ramer Products
didn't have the distribution network needed to market Notwax.
So Kris and her father formed a new company, Zardoz, in Boulder,
Colorado, solely to market Notwax.

Notwax required "legwork" to succeed: Someone had to
actually go out to ski resorts and demonstrate to skiers and
snowboarders how Notwax worked. Products requiring legwork--like
Notwax--are ideally suited for young entrepreneurs with lots of
energy and enthusiasm.

Kris teamed up with her father, but you don't have to have
an inventor in the family to make such a partnership work for you.
There are thousands of older inventors who could benefit from a
young partner with energy and determination. If you don't have
enough money to start your own business, consider teaming up with
an older inventor instead.

Don Debelak (dondebelak@uswest.net) is a
new-business marketing consultant who has introduced new products
for more than 20 years. He is the author of Bringing Your Product
to Market (John Wiley & Sons, $19.95, 800-225-5945).

The Youth Edge

What can young entrepreneurs offer older inventors? In working
with new products, over and over again I hear inventors say "I
just don't have the time to market my invention." There
are two reasons for this comment: First, many older inventors have
families, homes and financial obligations. They can't afford to
quit their jobs and spend all their time working to introduce a new
product. Notwax inventor Paul Ramer, for example, already had a
business to run. When you're in your 20s and 30s, you're
more likely to have fewer financial obligations. At your age,
it's easier to take a pay cut and work for a low salary for a
few years in hopes of a big payoff.

The second reason older inventors lack time is simply that
introducing new products requires a lot of effort. In the five
years she's been in business with her dad, Kris has given away
300,000 samples at ski resorts, consumer ski shows, swap meets and
movie screenings targeting hard-core ski enthusiasts.

Ski shops and resorts would buy Notwax whenever Kris was there
handing out samples, but they wouldn't carry the product
without a sampling program. Heavy sampling was an effective
alternative to advertising, but it requires weekends away from home
and grueling days on the ski slopes, which Paul couldn't have
handled.

Another advantage Kris offered her father was that she's
closer in age to the target customers and simply understood their
needs better than her dad did. That alone made her a more effective
salesperson for the company.

The Age Advantage

What can older inventors offer you? A product, often a patent,
and access to cash you simply don't have.

It's important for an invention to be fully developed prior
to introduction. Many novice inventors make the mistake of rushing
a product to market before it's ready. More experienced
inventors are willing to spend a year or two fine-tuning the
invention so it's as marketable as possible when it hits the
market.

Experienced inventors are also more likely to have access to
funding. Their friends have more money, and they often have a
network of business associates who want to fund the product. One
inventor I worked with who had an engineering background raised
$150,000 from his engineering friends--$5,000 at a time--to market
a pump he had invented. He never quit his day job--he had a friend
market the invention for him instead.

Match Game

Entrepreneurs do best in markets where they're similar to
the target customers. They do even better when they're actually
in the target customer group. Who's best qualified to sell
products to snowboarders? Other snowboarders, of course. In trying
to find an inventing partner, look for inventions you might
actually buy or use. Then follow these six steps:

1.Choose one or two types of products you'd like
to sell. In Kris' case, the product areas would have been
cross-country skiing and snowboarding.

2.Find trade magazines and trade shows that target
retailers or end users in that market. You can find trade
magazines in Gale Directory (The Gale Group), available at
most libraries. You can find trade shows at www.tscentral.com or in trade show
directories (at your local library).

3.Look in the trade magazines for press releases
about products you'd like to sell, or visit a trade show and
look for booths with interesting products. Ask the owners of
those companies if they have a distributor in your area. If they
don't, there's a good chance they would be open to a
proposal from a young entrepreneur seeking to form a partnership to
develop the business.

4.Tell the inventor you'd like to work with him
or her to market the idea. Explain that you love the product;
that you're in the target customer group; and that you have the
time, energy and determination to get the product off the
ground.

5.If the inventor is interested, ask to visit his or
her location so you can see the production facilities and review
the progress that's been made in marketing the idea. There
are two reasons for this visit: It shows the inventor you're
professional, and it allows you to make sure the inventor can
produce enough to support your sales efforts.

6.Make a proposal about earning a share of the
inventor's business. (See "Deal Me In".)

Young entrepreneurs run into a lot of obstacles when starting
businesses, including finding an opportunity, creating the right
product and raising sufficient capital. Working with an established
inventor gets you over these hurdles and allows you to put into
play your greatest assets: time, energy and determination.

Even if your first product launch fails, you'll be in a much
better position to succeed in your second effort. The worst that
can happen is you'll get a cheap education. And that's a
pretty good payoff.

Deal Me In

Don't move forward with a partner without a letter of
agreement specifying how each person will participate in ownership
of the business. A written agreement protects you if disagreements
arise later on when the company starts making money.

Making a deal can be difficult. The inventor won't want to
give away ownership of the idea to someone who hasn't yet done
anything to help it; you won't want to invest time or energy in
the project unless you're guaranteed significant ownership of
the invention.

The fairest way to proceed is to strike an "earn your
way" agreement with a buyout clause. With this type of
agreement, you get no ownership of the company unless you meet
certain performance criteria. For example, you might receive a
certain amount of stock, or a percentage of ownership, for every
$50,000 in sales, up to a certain maximum percentage of the
company. You might be able to earn up to 40 percent of the company
if the inventor is involved in day-to-day business operations, or
up to 60 or 70 percent of a company if the inventor isn't
actively involved. With an agreement like this, the inventor
doesn't have to give up any ownership unless you produce
results, and you know you'll be rewarded if you do your
job.

Include a buyout clause that lets either partner buy out the
other if the two partners prove to be incompatible. A buyout clause
dictates in advance how much one partner has to pay to buy out the
other. I recommend a clause that allows a buyout after three years
at fair market value, which can be a number agreed to by the
partners at the time of the buyout, or the average of the
appraisals given by two or three appraisers.

Be sure to have your partnership agreement reviewed by a
lawyer.

Invention Conventions

Looking for an inventor partner? Head to an invention
convention. You'll often find inventors at these shows who have
developed their inventions so they're ready to market, but who
don't know how to begin marketing. These inventors usually have
much less experience than inventors you'll find through a trade
magazine or trade show. That means they'll often give an
energetic entrepreneur favorable terms in a partnership agreement.
Some conventions to try: